One of a Kind Friend
by Kat Lee formerly Pirate Turner
Summary: Mufasa must come to the rescue when Scar and Jafar plan a bird swap.


Title: "One of a Kind Friend"  
Author: Pirate Turner  
Rating: PG-13  
Summary: Mufasa must come to the rescue when Scar and Jafar plan a bird swap.  
Warnings: Crossover  
Word Count: 1,813  
Challenge: This fic was written for a fic exchange contest/challenge on Disney_Uberland at Live Journal. I highly recommend this comm to all Disney fans; please see more information below the story.  
Disclaimer: Mufasa, Zazu, Scar, Jafar, Iago, Rafiki, all other characters mentioned within, The Lion King, Aladdin, and Disney are & TM Disney and any other possible respective owners, none of which are the author; are used without permission; and may not be used without permission. Everything else is & TM the author. The author makes absolutely no profit off of this work of fan fiction, and no copyright infringement is intended.

"This is going too far, Jafar! I won't put up with this!"

Jafar sneered down at his pet as he shook his golden birdcage. "You'll do whatever I have you do," he told him.

Scar's tongue ran over his lips as he eyed the parrot. Not only were his feathers brighter than Zazu's, but there was considerably more meat on his bones. "You can thank Mufasa for not feeding you properly," Scar growled at the terrified, blue bird, his long tail slashing through the air. "I don't bother to eat skinny, little runts like you."

"You'd better not!" Zazu cried, shaking the bars on his cage. "Why, when the King hears of this - "

"What King?"

Zazu's eyes flared as he glared at Scar. "Mufasa, of course!" This lion really had hit every limb on the way down when he'd fallen out of the tree!

"Oh, that King," Scar replied dismissively. He jerked one of his long and deadly claws at his own throat. "He won't be saving any one pretty soon."

Zazu bristled at the threat, but then the Majordomo reminded himself that Scar had been making such idle threats about his Highness for years. Indeed, he reflected, Scar had been threatening to kill his brother, who was as high above him as the moon that shone down upon them all, ever since Mufasa had been named King.

"He'll come!" he said, rattling his cage again. "You'll see! He'll come, and you'll be lucky if he doesn't eat _you_ up and spit you out like the mangy hairball you are!"

Jafar peered down at the brave, little hornbill. "He has quite a mouth on him, I see."

"Yours does, as well," Scar pointed out.

"A bad habit I've been working for years to try to correct," Jafar told his friend, glowering down at Iago.

"You can't shut me up!" Iago exclaimed. "I'll never shut up!"

Scar smiled. "You'll shut up when I eat you."

Iago's yellow eyes nearly popped out of his very head. "You can't eat me!"

Scar smiled. "Watch and die."

Iago quickly changed tactics. "You don't want to eat me! I'm nothing but skin and bones!"

Scar licked his lips again. "You look nicely plump and juicy to me," he remarked.

"It's all feathers!" Iago began madly plucking at his own feathers. "See? I'm not really big! It's all these feathers that make me look big! I'm really, really skinny, even scrawnier than he is!" He jerked a wing at the other bird. "If you want any meat at all, you better eat him!"

Scar's eyes glowed in the darkness lit only by the fire from the surrounding geysers. "Go right ahead," he said with a lethal-sounding rumbling coming from his throat. His tail swished as he watched the terrified bird with pleasure and patience. "Remove all your feathers like a good, little bird, so I don't have to taste them when I devour you." He reached over and raked his claws across the door of Iago's cage. His smile grew at the parrot's scream.

"And this," Jafar demanded, picking up Zazu's cage and peering in at the hornbill, "is the Royal Advisor to your kingdom?"

"Yes," Scar dismissively flipped a paw, "for what good he is."

Zazu threw a wing up over his face to shield him from Jafar's piercing glare. "Put that thing away!" he commanded. "Your face is uglier than the backside of a warthog!"

Jafar sneered, his mustache bristling. He shook the cage menacingly. "We'll see how fast you change your tune when I take you home to my snake!"

"I'm not going anywhere! The King will come for me!"

"Your beloved, little King's not coming," Scar told him again. "It's the mating season. He's busy making new little brats to run around and pester their Uncle Scar." Moonlight reflected off of his gleaming fangs as he smiled devilishly. "The hyenas will enjoy devouring them almost as much as I'm gonna enjoy eating you!"

Iago screamed again as Scar wrapped his paws around his cage and snatched it to him. His tongue flicked between the bars. Gathering all his strength to him, Iago flew forward and bit down on his foul-smelling tongue with all the strength he possessed. As Scar screamed, threw the cage, clutched his paws over his mouth, and fell back, Iago started spitting fur. He'd never tasted anything so rotten in all of his life!

Jafar smiled coldly down at the parrot. "I can see you two were made for each other. I'll just be going, then, with my new, little friend, so that you may enjoy your feast in private." He grabbed Zazu's cage and started to walk away.

Scar motioned to the man's back, and hyenas raced out of the shadows. Jafar whirled around in a twirl of black and shot his staff out. The golden snake head's eyes glowed, and Scar and his hyenas stopped where they stood. None of them could move an inch!

A sudden, massive roar echoed through the land. It chilled Jafar to the bottom of his black soul. The Sorcerer was so startled that he immediately dropped his staff. As it clattered to the ground, Scar and his hyenas were released. They blinked as they returned to their senses and then shrank and slithered back into the shadows from whence they'd crawled.

"Thank goodness you've arrived, brother dear!" Scar crooned, putting a paw to his chest in a feigning act of defenselessness. "Look at what this monster was going to do to our buddy, Zazu!"

Mufasa roared again, and Scar fell to the ground. "Honestly I didn't have an idea this was happening! It was all his and the hyenas' doing! They - "

Mufasa's third, enormous roar finally silenced his brother. Scar lay, quivering, upon the ground as Jafar reached for his staff. It was suddenly snatched up into the air by a thin, hairless hand. Jafar yelled in protest and then screeched again in pain as Rafiki hit him in the head with his own staff! "Asante sana! Squash Banana! We we nugu! Mi mi apana!," the monkey chanted, grinning from ear to ear, as he bounced up and down.

Mufasa smiled approvingly. "A precise hit, my old friend, as always."

Rafiki screeched in victory as he raised the staff above his head. The snake's eyes glowed.

"No! Don't - " Jafar cried out, reaching a hand toward his favorite weapon.

Rafiki hit Jafar again. Then he immediately began to chant words that none of the others could understand even as Jafar fell to the ground. The baboon continued bouncing up and down, chanting, and hitting Jafar each time he reached for his staff. Whenever Scar and his hyenas began to slink forward from the darkness, a roar from Mufasa quickly sent them scattering again.

Rafiki's voice grew stronger, and the speed of his chant quickened. He raised his hands into the air and released the staff. The snake's eyes continued to glow as it flew up, spun swiftly around seven times, and then shattered.

"NNNOOOOO!" Jafar cried. He desperately began grabbing at the pieces of his staff as they floated back to the ground.

Mufasa turned and sliced Iago's cage open. The parrot shrank back into his cage and eyed the great lion apprehensively.

"Go ahead, little friend," Mufasa coaxed. "You're free."

"You can't do that!" Jafar protested.

Mufasa whirled on the Sorcerer. He roared so loudly that the wind sailing from his mouth ripped holes into Jafar's clothes. "I AM THE KING! I CAN DO WHATEVER I PLEASE, AND YOU, WIZARD, WILL DO WELL THIS NIGHT TO ESCAPE WITH YOUR LIFE! THERE WILL NEVER BE ANY BIRD SWAPPING IN MY KINGDOM!"

"But, brother, this isn't exactly your kingdom," Scar spoke up, edging stealthily forward out of the shadows.

"DO NOT DARE TO ARGUE WITH ME THIS NIGHT, SCAR, WHEN YOU HAVE STOLEN ZAZU! I SHOULD BANISH YOU!"

"I was innocent in this!"

Mufasa glowered at him, his deep, rich brown eyes speaking clearly of how he never trusted nor even liked his brother. "You are innocent in nothing, Scar."

Scar fell to the ground beneath Mufasa's fierce gaze and groveled. "Yes, yes," he cried, "I'm a wicked, mangy lion who should be put of my misery!"

Mufasa turned his back on Scar. Scar started to rise up, but Iago saw his movement, flew swiftly out of his cage, and pecked his eyes. Scar swatted at him, but the parrot deftly avoided his blows as he flew up into the air. "Be careful who you trust, Your Majesty," he called back down to Mufasa, "and thank you for my freedom!" He turned and began the long flight back to Agrabah.

Mufasa smiled down at Zazu as he opened his cage. "Let us go home now, my friend."

"Yes, let's, please, Sire!" Zazu was quick to agree.

Scar reached a paw towards Mufasa, but Rafiki swiftly hit first his paw and then his head. He hit Jafar again for good measure as Mufasa and Zazu headed back to the Pride Lands. The Shaman screeched in victory again before swiftly hitting Scar and Jafar twice more with his stick and hurrying after Mufasa and Zazu.

* * *

Much later that night, Mufasa left his cave to go in search of Zazu. He found his little friend gazing up at the stars. "Zazu?" he asked in his deep voice.

"I almost joined them tonight."

"Nonsense. I headed after you the moment you failed to report."

"I . . . " The bird slowly drew a talon through the grass, his small, blue wings folded behind him. "I was afraid you were too busy to notice my absence, Sire, what with the lionesses being in heat and all . . . "

"Nonsense." A deep, rumbling purr began in Mufasa's throat as he walked up behind his dear friend, sat down, and pulled Zazu backwards into a hug. He leaned down and rubbed his face against his, still purring. "I have many lionesses," he told him sincerely, "but only one of you, Zazu. No one will harm you as long as I live."

Zazu put his wings around Mufasa's face and returned his hug as well as he was capable of doing when he was so much larger than he. "Thank you, Sire," he spoke sincerely and yet, in his secret heart, Zazu wondered just how much longer his beloved King would live. Scar had been making threats for what seemed like forever, so long indeed that Mufasa too quickly dismissed them, but he came ever closer with each new plot. He wished that Mufasa would banish Scar but knew he would never abandon his brother for no matter how gravely Scar harmed him, there was a part of Mufasa that would always love him for he was his family. Zazu hugged Mufasa more tightly. He never wanted to see their world without him for the loss of his King would surely destroy his own heart and soul.

**The End**

Author's Note: If you enjoyed this story, or any of my other writings, I hope you'll consider joining my friends and I at a brand new fan fic/art site called Ficcers Unite. At Ficcers Unite, we welcome all fandoms, pairings (slash and het), and even no pairings at all; hope to begin a Marvel/Disney RPG soon; and plan on issuing challenges every day of the week! Come on over and check us out at today!

For years I have searched for an active Disney community that welcomed all Disney's fans. Disney_Uberland is such a place! Members make up five teams: Team Stitch (of which I am honored to be a part of) for all heroes and adorable characters; Team Sharpay for all live action Disneys; Team Ariel for all Disney Princesses; Team Scar for all Disney villains; and Team Wall-e for all Pixars. Members compete in all kinds of different contest, including, but in no means limited to, fan fictions, icons, lists, fan mixes, recruitments, and honors, to see who can reach 5,000 points first. The first winners were Team Scar, and though we tip our hats to them, we, Team Stitch, hope to be the next winners - and we hope that you will join us, regardless of whether it be as a team member or a fellow community member! Please do come by and join us; we promise you'll have fun!

Please also remember to mention that I - OrliDepp and a member of Team Stitch - invited you as my team will garner points for your recruitment.

The best I can post of the URL is _uberland but remember to replace the DOTs with . and the SLASH with / . Hope to see you there! Happy Disney Dreaming!


End file.
